Whisper
July 15th, 2009, 07:34 PM
Swine flu hits 3 Ontario summer camps
Dozens of children at three summer camps in Ontario's Muskoka region have been sent home after an outbreak of swine flu, health officials said Wednesday.
While most of the 227 children affected have left the camps, children whose parents weren't available or children from out of the country, are staying put, said Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit.
Camp officials sent e-mails and telephoned parents with children at the affected camps.
Gardner said most of the cases are mild and that the children were sent home to make it easier for the camps to manage the remaining children.
He said it's likely some campers had the H1N1 virus when they arrived and it quickly spread.
The outbreak has affected three camps in the Simcoe-Muskoka region, about 150 kilometres north of Toronto, but officials aren't naming the camps, citing confidentiality rules as their reason.
Health officials aren't recommending parents remove their children from other camps, but they do say children should remain at home if they have flu-like symptoms.
As of Wednesday, there have been 9,855 confirmed cases of swine flu across Canada. Of those, 902 cases have been hospitalized. Thirty-nine people who contracted the disease have died, says the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The World Health Organization in early June declared the spread of the virus had reached pandemic level, the first time a global flu epidemic has occurred in the past 41 years. The organization raised its pandemic alert level to Phase 6, the highest on the scale.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/07/15/camp-ontario-swine-outbreak015.html
Dozens of children at three summer camps in Ontario's Muskoka region have been sent home after an outbreak of swine flu, health officials said Wednesday.
While most of the 227 children affected have left the camps, children whose parents weren't available or children from out of the country, are staying put, said Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit.
Camp officials sent e-mails and telephoned parents with children at the affected camps.
Gardner said most of the cases are mild and that the children were sent home to make it easier for the camps to manage the remaining children.
He said it's likely some campers had the H1N1 virus when they arrived and it quickly spread.
The outbreak has affected three camps in the Simcoe-Muskoka region, about 150 kilometres north of Toronto, but officials aren't naming the camps, citing confidentiality rules as their reason.
Health officials aren't recommending parents remove their children from other camps, but they do say children should remain at home if they have flu-like symptoms.
As of Wednesday, there have been 9,855 confirmed cases of swine flu across Canada. Of those, 902 cases have been hospitalized. Thirty-nine people who contracted the disease have died, says the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The World Health Organization in early June declared the spread of the virus had reached pandemic level, the first time a global flu epidemic has occurred in the past 41 years. The organization raised its pandemic alert level to Phase 6, the highest on the scale.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/07/15/camp-ontario-swine-outbreak015.html